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Blankfein Says His Goldman Departure Must Come Before He's Ready

(Bloomberg) -- Lloyd Blankfein said a lack of clear options for a second career means he’ll need the resolve to relinquish his post atop Goldman Sachs Group Inc. before he has something else lined up.

“The government doesn’t seem that available for me and I’m not sure I want to die at my desk, so that creates a problem,” Blankfein, the Wall Street bank’s chief executive officer, said Thursday at the Boston College Chief Executives Club. “I don’t think I’m destined to leave because I’m finding something else attractive, I just think I’m going to have to have the discipline to leave when I want to stay.”

Blankfein, 63, said a report this month that he had made plans to step down as soon as this year wasn’t correct, but that it may become so once he makes a decision. Last week, Goldman Sachs took steps to name a successor, saying Harvey Schwartz would resign and leave David Solomon as the sole president and chief operating officer, and the most likely heir apparent.

Blankfein said Thursday that he’s been thinking a lot about his 12-year tenure as CEO and that his wife has told him she doesn’t think he should step down. But he isn’t ready to retire for a life of golf, he said.

“I know I want to do something,” Blankfein said. “I’d like to have a runway,” he said, adding, “I’m still looking.”